How Much Sleep Do You Need To Feel Normal And Healthy?

Getting “enough sleep” is a weird concept, considering that everyone is a little bit different. What does science have to say on the matter? Just how much sleep should you be getting? And what the hell is “sleep debt”? This video explains all.

[credit provider=”Shutterstock” url=”http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-122086012/stock-photo-naked-girl-on-the-bed.html”]

According to the friendly science-splainers at ASAP Science on YouTube, the recommended amount of sleep you should be getting varies from person to person. Ideally, it should be 7-8 hours per night. [related title=”More Sleep articles” tag=”sleep2″ items=”3″]

So what happens when you don’t get your precious 8 hours of kip? Well, according to science, you’re at higher risk of ending up with all the bad stuff, including heart disease, obesity and type-2 diabetes and a 12 per cent higher risk of mortality.

Worse still, prolonged periods of sleeplessness where you only get between 4 and 6 hours of sleep per night (read: gadget journalists) your thought processes are impaired to the point that they may never recover.

Don’t panic, however. Scientists have found that you can recover from sleep debt over time with better nights of good sleep.
[clear]

Obviously, the longer you have been keeping your body up, the longer it will take to right the ship so to speak. Check out the video below for a full scientific rundown:

How many hours of sleep per night do you get? Tell us in the comments!


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


6 responses to “How Much Sleep Do You Need To Feel Normal And Healthy?”